Gennady Korban, Dnipropetrovsk businessman and head of the recently founded UKROP party, was detained in Dnipropetrovsk by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on the morning of Oct. 31. The offices and homes of his associates were searched.
SBU and Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed they were conducting a large-scale joint operation against an organized crime group in Dnipropetrovsk.
“There is no political component in this case,” SBU prosecutor Vladyslav Kutsenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Oct. 31. “We don’t care which political party the suspects represent.”
UKROP has called the arrest and the searches an act of “political repression.”
A video of Gennady Korban being arrested in his apartment in Dnipropetrovsk on the morning of Oct. 31, published by the State Security Service of Ukraine.
Korban is suspected of kidnapping several people during his time as deputy governor of Dnipropetrovsk in 2014-2015 and is facing eight to 15 years of prison. One of them, according to the investigators, was Oleksandr Velychko, a director of the law department in Dnipropetrovsk City Council, allegedly kidnapped to force a change of the city’s mayor back in 2014.
Korban is also suspected of stealing Hr 40 million that were donated to the Defense of State Fund – the Dnipropetrovsk-based organization, associated with him, that has been raising money for Ukrainian military since 2014.
“There is nothing more stupid than accusing Korban of stealing money from the Defense of State Fund. Korban himself was the biggest donor of this fund,” Svyatoslav Oliynyk, Korban’s former colleague at the governor office, wrote on Facebook on Oct. 31.
SBU said 500 officers were involved in the operation.
Prosecutor General’s Office said that the operation was intentionally scheduled after the Oct. 25 local elections to avoid any political connotation. In fact, the election is not over as the vote count is still in its final stages in UKROP’s anchor region Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Korban was arrested in his apartment early on Oct. 31. Later that day he was brought to Kyiv.
UKROP called its supporters to protest against the detention at a rally on the evening of Oct. 31 in Dnipropetrovsk.
The offices of the UKROP party in Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv were searched, as well as the home of Korban’s parents. In the afternoon of Oct. 31, lawmaker Borys Filatov, Korban’s friend, business partner, and Dnipropetrovsk mayoral candidate said the investigators were trying to get into his house and office.
The investigators also searched the apartment of Pavlo Khazan, head of the Defense of the State Fund, and his sister, volunteer Natalya Khazan, who is also involved in the fund. The fund associated with Korban has been raising for the Ukrainian military and associated with Korban.
A video by Dnipropetrovsk-based Channel 9 shows armed men blocking the entrance to the apartment of Pavlo Khazan as it is being searched early on Oct. 31.
Korban, a Dnipropetrovsk businessman and a renowned self-admitted corporate raider, launched UKROP party in 2015 with a financial support of his friend, Ukraine’s second richest oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
Read Gennady Korban’s profile by Kyiv Post.
With the new party, Korban ran for parliament in the by-election in Chernihiv in July, and to Kyiv mayor in Oct. 25 election – and failed both times.
But UKROP did well in the Oct. 25 local election, coming second in the voting for the city council in Dnipropetrovsk, and making it to the councils of several other cities. Its representative Filatov came second in the Dnipropetrovsk mayor voting and made it to the Nov. 15 runoff. His opponent is Oleksandr Vilkul of the Opposition Bloc, the party that is a successor of the disgraced former President Viktor Yanukovych’s political force Party of Regions.
On the eve of his detention, Korban was involved in an argument at the Babushkinskiy District Election Commission in central Dnipropetrovsk. The district had not yet filed its results for the Oct. 25 local election to the City Election Commission.
UKROP wanted the final count for the district to take place at the City Election Commission, while representatives of Petro Poroshenko Bloc and Opposition Bloc wanted the head of the commission to be replaced.
The argument reportedly continued for hours during which armed men entered the building and an armored personnel carrier marked Dnipro-1 Battalion – a division allegedly sponsored by oligarch Kolomoisky – showed up outside and left without explanation. Denys Davydov, a representative of the election monitors OPORA, reported on Facebook that the commission, under armed guard, handed over their count to the City Election Commission.
In the heat of the argument, Korban threw a book across the table at the election commission members. The video of the incident was published by his opponent Vilkul’s people.
A month after founding Ukrop, Korban ran for parliament in a by-election in Chernihiv in July, and for Kyiv mayor in the Oct. 25 elections – but failed to win both times.
